The Sorrow of Angels

By: Jón Kalman Stefánsson

Published by Biblioasis, 2025-11-04

The second installment in Stefánsson's Trilogy About the Boy is a timeless story that portrays the human struggle for hope within the ferocious majesty of Iceland.

It's been three weeks since the boy came to town, carrying a book of poetry to return to the old sea captain--the poetry Bárður died for. Just three weeks, but already Bárður's ghost has faded. Snow falls so heavily that it binds heaven and earth together.

As the villagers gather in the inn to drink schnapps and coffee while the boy reads to them from Hamlet, Jens the postman stumbles in half-dead, having almost frozen to his horse. On his next journey to the fjords, Jens is accompanied by the boy, and both must risk their lives for each other, and for an unusual item of mail.

The second installment in Stefánsson's elemental Trilogy About the Boy, The Sorrow of Angels is a timeless literary masterpiece that evokes the human struggle within the ferocious majesty of nature.